The Malik Report

Mickey Redmond had suggested that the Red Wings would look to add some size and/or scoring to their bottom six forwards at the end of Saturday's Wings-Predators broadcast, and according to MLive's Ansar Khan (via RedWingsFeed), that may be the case:

"One minute I think I shouldn't do anything, the next minute I think these guys have played their (rears) off for 60 games, maybe I should help them a little bit," Holland said. "But help can't just be a body."

The Red Wings would like to add a player who provides a different dimension, like a skilled right-handed shooting defenseman or a big, gritty winger. But they're not prepared to part with valued assets (high-end prospects, their first-round pick or good, young roster players).

The Wings' 4-1-and-1 record on their 6-game road trip and Saturday's 4-3 win = Detroit owns a 35-15-and-11 record over the course of 61 games played (with 32 regulation-or-OT wins), and Detroit's 81 points place them 1 point behind the Tampa Bay Lightning (with 2 games in hand) and 6 behind the Atlantic-leading Montreal Canadiens--and 10 points clear of the Boston Bruins as well.

Holland said he's been in touch with several teams and will continue to talk to general managers over the next couple of days leading up to the 3 p.m. Monday deadline. Cap space is not an issue since the Red Wings can acquire as much as $9 million in contracts.

That's not including placing Johan Franzen on the LTIR.

"We're exploring if there's players out there that would make our team better; not looking for a lateral move," Holland said. "If there's only lateral moves or the price is higher than we're prepared to pay, we won't do anything."

Khan mentions Erik Cole, Zbynek Michalek, Marek Zidlicky and Jeff Petry, but he suggests that the Wings aren't interested in Dion Phaneuf, and he reports that Holland's willing to move the team's 2nd round pick if necessary...

"We appear to be playing pretty good hockey, growing as a team," Holland said. "If we can find a player to upgrade us, give us another dimension, we'll do it."

...

"Our team has played at a high level," Holland said. "We've tried to test our depth, played Ouellet, Marchenko, (Petr) Mrazek for periods of time. We feel pretty good about our depth, the development of young players."

But Khan also notes that the Red Wings' coach admittedly harbors a very different perspective from his general manager for a simple reason--he's not a general manager (and Khan delivers quite the philosophical quote from Babcock in that regard)-but when Khan asked Babcock about the team's needs today, he got a roadblock answer:

"As the league goes on and the pace picks up and there's less space, some guys have really taken off and other guys haven't traveled at the same pace as the team," Babcock said. "So suddenly your needs might not be the same as they were a month ago."

Again, Khan continues, and I believe that the Wings will stand pat, but that's just my gut feeling, and my gut said that the Wings were going to get Jagr, so who knows.

The Detroit Red Wings appeared to be skating en route to yet another loss to the Predators at Bridgestone Arena halfway through the game and going into the 3rd period, when Matt Cullen, Mike Fisher and Shea Weber's consecutive goals wiped out Detroit's 2-0 and 2-1 leads, and Detroit was hacked, whacked, checked, smashed and otherwise mashed (including a Darren Helm injury) into appearing to hopefully look to earn a point out of the team's 6th and final road game of their massive 6-game Murderers' Row affair...

But Alexey Marchenko tied things up 3:56 into the 3rd, Tomas Tatar scored a "fluky" but earned power play goal and Jonas Gustavsson stopped 37 of 40 Predators shots as the Red Wings snapped Nashville's unbeaten-in-the-afternoon and unbeaten-more-than-once-in-regulation streaks (only the Wings have dropped no more than 1 regulation loss at a time), defeating Nashville 4-3 and wrapping up their 6-game trip with a 4-1-and-1 record against the Dallases, Chicagos, Anaheims, Nashvilles, San Joses and Nashvilles of the world.

This certainly makes much more sense than recalling Xavier Ouellet for trade purposes, so, ahead of today's game between the Nashville Predators and Detroit Red Wings (3 PM EST on FSD/FS Tennessee/Sportsnet/97.1 FM):

Ouellet, 21, has skated in 21 games with the Red Wings this season, recording three points (2-1-3) and a plus-four rating. He has also appeared in 32 games with the Griffins, notching 11 points (1-10-11) and a plus-10 rating. Since rejoining Grand Rapids on Feb. 9, the team has ridden an 11-game point streak (9-0-2-0) to claim the top spot in the Midwest Division for the first time this season. The Bayonne, France, native was also named to the AHL’s Western Conference All-Star Team. In 102 career AHL games, Ouellet has registered 28 points (5-23-28), a plus-13 rating and 42 penalty minutes. Originally drafted by Detroit in the second round (48th overall) of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, Ouellet skated in 223 games with the QMJHL’s Montreal Juniors and Blainville-Boisbriand Armada from 2009-13, recording 160 points (41-119-160) and capturing a spot on the QMJHL First All-Star Team in back-to-back seasons (2012 and 2013). He also represented Canada at the 2013 World Junior Championship in Ufa, Russia, picking up three points (1-2-3) in six games.

Q: If you had to guess right now, do the Wings deal or stand pat? If they make a move, who do you think is most likely to come here, among the players mentioned in trade talk? Or perhaps someone under the radar?

A: My first inclination is to say they will stand pat. The trade market seems to be thin, inflating the cost of average players.

The Red Wings aren't going to deal their first-round pick, any premium prospects or good, young roster players, short of landing an impact player. That doesn't leave many trading chips. They would hesitate to deal their second-round pick but it can be had for the right player. And they're not opposed to trading for a rental if the price is right.

If they can acquire Marek Zidlicky from the New Jersey Devils at a reasonable price I could see that happening. He would need to waive his no-trade clause.

He's not big (5-11, 190) and he's old (38), but he would give them an offensive dimension that others (Jeff Petry, Zbynek Michalek) would not. And he might not cost as much as those players.

Zidlicky, a right-handed shot, can quarterback the power play with his passing ability and good shot. Sure, the Red Wings power play is No. 1 in the NHL without him, but he would provide an upgrade.

Q: Surprised to hear Dion Phaneuf's name in the rumor mill since Toronto signed him to that big deal last year and he's their captain. At first, I figured it made no sense for the Wings, but then again, they do have a lot of cap space and he would be an upgrade. What do you think?

A: I think they'll stay clear of Phaneuf. He'd be an upgrade with his booming shot, albeit left-handed, and physical presence, but it makes no sense to assume that contract, which has six more years at a cap hit of $7 million.

Couture didn't get a major penalty or a suspension for a wrestling move--and there were lots of "wrestling moves" by both sides in what was a horrifically-refereed game last night--but this is better than nothing.

I'm going to be as blunt as possible here as I'm catching up late (stupid medication adjustment issues thanks to my Abilify dosage being doubled; stuff works great, but the miligram change = blogging has been limited recently):

Many of you have been very passionately debating the concept of the Red Wings somehow adding Dion Phaneuf to the lineup after TSN's Darren Dreger brought up the concept for the third or fourth time over the past 24 hours.

Dreger's been hammering this particular topic for the past three weeks, and given that I'm not the only person who feels that TSN's lack of TV rights has resulted in a staggering overload of Leaf coverage...

From a pure "gut feeling" perspective (as many of you have pointed out, his "fancy stats" are not very good):

1. You know how I feel about the concept of adding a player who is not a long-term upgrade--that, barring a defenseman going back the other way, whoever comes to Detroit would simply be a roadblock for Alexey Marchenko and Xavier Ouellet's deserved full-time NHL promotions next season.

The Red Wings are departing California to spend the day flying to Nashville, so the team's not practicing today, and tomorrow's 3 PM EST start = it's highly unlikely that the team will hold any sort of morning skate, so we shouldn't expect any news about Henrik Zetterberg for a couple of days...

But the Wings did discuss their 3-2 win over the San Jose Sharks with the Free Press's Helene St. James in the light of the team's resiliency when "down but not out":

That improved the Wings to 8-11-2 when trailing after two periods, a league-best winning percentage of .381. Newcomer Teemu Pulkkinen already has picked up on what happens when it's late in a game and the score isn't in Detroit's favor. "Even when we are losing," he said after the Sharks game, "we keep playing like we are going to get a goal."

St. James continues, discussing Brendan Smith's status (probably OK), Kyle Quincey's status (not yet) and Henrik Zetterberg's status (not playing until next week) before concluding with the following:

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The Malik Report is a destination for all things Red Wings-related. I offer biased, perhaps unprofessional-at-times and verbose coverage of my favorite team, their prospects and developmental affiliates. I've joined the Kukla's Korner family with five years of blogging under my belt, and I hope you'll find almost everything you need to follow your Red Wings at a place where all opinions are created equal and we're all friends, talking about hockey and the team we love to follow.